16 Cup teams have spacers confiscated; are penalties warranted?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—As teams left Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night, they were either frustrated about having to build new restrictor-plate cars for Talladega or worried about possible penalties from the confiscation of roof-flap spacers.

The first is nothing new when a team leaves a plate track. Big wrecks are common. Teams never count on cars returning from one of these races. They all are just happy their drivers are OK.

The second item, in some ways, also is common. It’s typical that at least one team faces potential penalties after a restrictor-plate weekend. The rules are different than other tracks, and it can be a place where teams try a variety of tricks.

But what happened last weekend is much different than the typical rules violation—16 Sprint Cup teams (and 15 in Nationwide) had spacers confiscated.

There is no specific rule on the spacers other than the rulebook stating that teams must install the roof flaps according to the instructions in the roof-flap kit, which comes from Roush’s advanced composites manufacturing division.

In a rare instance, NASCAR Vice President Robin Pemberton said: “It’s probably not something that was on a normal inspection routine.”

With so many parts and pieces on the car, that’s understandable. Teams used the kits but either altered or made their own spacers (even Roush Fenway Racing was among those found with illegal spacers). They didn’t even paint them the same color, so it’s not like they were trying to hide something.

But by shaving off a little weight at the top of the car, it could help on most tracks although not superspeedways.

NASCAR is in a bit of a quandary. Messing with a safety device traditionally is a points penalty. But with 16 Cup teams and 15 Nationwide teams with issues, it appears that NASCAR didn’t consider it a huge priority to inspect.

Some of the most bare-bone of Nationwide teams had illegal spacers—teams with no reason to cheat and no money to develop such technology. They probably just came in a car they bought from another organization.

“I know we use the parts in the kit, we just lightened those parts a little bit where there’s a lot of teams that threw them away and made their own even smaller is what I heard,” said Joe Gibbs Racing’s Matt Kenseth, who has won four races this year.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal.”

So does NASCAR make an example out of 31 teams? Or does it have some responsibility since it didn’t inspect this area on a weekly basis?

NASCAR has backed itself into a corner. Come down hard on teams tampering with a safety piece and it looks like they are penalizing teams for something that wasn’t a big enough deal for it to be scrutinized on a weekly basis.

Give each team a slap on the wrist and it looks like they are not concerned with safety and worried about losing on appeal.

NASCAR most likely will announce any penalties Tuesday. Several teams on the Chase bubble are nervous because even a small points penalty adds pressure as they try to make the Chase field.

“I don’t know how that’s going to pan out,” said defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski, who is 13th in the standings. “I don’t have a crystal ball. It’s not what you want to see.”

Keselowski also has reason to be worried because his crew chief and other Penske personnel are on probation through the end of the year for previous violations.

STANDINGS SHAKEUP

Tony Stewart used a second-place finish Saturday at Daytona to move up six spots in the standings from 16th to 10th.

“Great, I’ll take it,” Stewart said.

Stewart wasn’t the only driver to crack the top-10 as Kurt Busch, who was sixth, went from 14th to ninth.

“We’ve made little mistakes here, there, and everywhere,” Busch said about his season. “When we start putting it together, it’s now starting to bear the fruit and we’ve moved our way into the Top 10 in points. So that’s pretty cool.”

They knocked Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano out of the top-10, with Logano dropping all the way from 10th to 15th after a blown tire relegated him to 40th.

Stewart is two points behind Busch and eight points ahead of 11th-place Truex.

Truex has one win, as does 12th-place Kasey Kahne (nine points behind Stewart). Those two drivers are tentatively in the wild-card spots for drivers 11th-20th based on wins.

It should be a wild eight races left before the Chase field is set. Right now on the outside looking in are these winless drivers: Keselowski (13th, 11 points behind Stewart), four-time champion Gordon (14th, 12 points behind Stewart), Logano (15th, 16 points behind Stewart) and Ryan Newman (16th, 17 points behind Stewart).

PIT STOPS

Ryan Newman will run the Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway in three weeks. Newman and Dave Blaney are the two confirmed Sprint Cup regulars to commit to that event. Drivers who had been mentioned as possibilities but won’t be racing include Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne and track owner Tony Stewart. … TNT enjoyed a 3.5 fast national rating for the Daytona race. Last year, the race was telecast on TNT and TruTV for a combined 3.6 rating (3.3 of it on TNT).